Self-perception of buccal health by marajoaras elderly people

Abstract

Self-perception in health refers to subjective experience about their functional, social and psychological well-being. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the self-perception regarding oral health of a non-institutionalized elderly population living in the Marajo Archipelago, Northern Region of Brazil. A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed with a simple random sample (n = 50). Self-perception was evaluated by means of a questionnaire validated by SB Brazil 2010. The use and necessity of a prosthesis was also evaluated through oral clinical examination. The association between self-perception, clinical factors of use and need for prosthesis and socioeconomic factors was verified using the chi-square test, with α = 0.05. According to the results obtained, 84% of the elderly already sought dental care, and 51.2% performed it in the private service, mainly to make dental extraction (55.8%). 75% had only 4 years of study use (p = 0.031) and 59.4% had a total family income of between R $ 501 and R $ 1,500 (p = 0.234) . Although they did not use the prosthesis, 62% considered that they needed to use the device (p = 0.003), since 56% had difficulty speaking (p = 0.015), 54% did not feel ashamed to speak or smile (p = 0.869) . It was noticed that the need for dental prosthesis is clinically superior to that perceived by the Marajoara elderly participants of the research and within these conditions is configured as a consequence of a multifactorial context that encompasses socioeconomic, geographic and cultural variables.